Q & A with Steve Montador

Behind Brendan Morrison, the biggest acquisition of the offseason by the Ducks was defenseman Steve Montador.

While not a big name among the free agent signings, Montador is being counted on to fill the fifth or sixth defenseman role on a team that is built on defense.

He showed the requisite combination of skill (with a career high eight goals and 23 points for Florida last season) and pugnacity (right), judging by his many YouTube clips.

Montador, who signed a one-year deal worth $800,000 in July, has playoff experience with Calgary and can handle a considerable workload (he averaged 11:39 of ice time last season).

He also had an atypical summer vacation, as you will read in this Q & A with the Register.

Q: How is this training camp different from seasons past?

A: There's different language here and different expectations. Obviously with the history of the organization and the people that are on board, there's a level of commitment and command that is expected from Day One, and that comes through in the drills and the mindset and the work that goes along with that.

Q: Different expectations? You can sense that after a couple of days?

A: I could sense that when I got here a month ago, just from hanging out and talking to the guys and getting a feel for what they've experienced or maybe without them saying it directly. That's how it is around here. I kind of like that.

Q: Will you be paired with Kent Huskins? Is that the idea?

A: I don't know. I haven't been paired with him. They'll figure that out.

Q: You were on the 2004 Calgary team that went to the Stanley Cup finals. Does that fuel your fire to get back there?

A: Yeah. It shows you how hard it is, but it shows you how doable it is. There's only a select few teams that can do that every year. Having been on a team in Calgary that hadn't done very much, to go and do that you see how fun it can be and you see what it takes work-wise. Calgary is a team that has high demands as well now and Anaheim is certainly no different. That's why I want to fit in here.

Q: This summer you went to Tanzania as a representative of Right To Play, a humanitarian organization that uses professional athletes and sports to improve health and promote peace for children in disadvantaged areas of the world. What did you do there?

A: We visited schools and orphanages ... for the most part we just joined in on celebration days and days that Right To Play was going to the schools ...we played a couple of soccer games with them. One day we celebrated the Day of the African Child. We did a couple of side adventures to get to know the landscape.

Q: Is the idea to use sports to develop life skills?

A: The broad spectrum is they want to improve quality of life, and the way they feel they can reach kids is sports ... everything you can learn in life and learn how to feel good about yourself, you can learn through sports.... you need to have a good work ethic and teamwork, communication and a good attitude - all of these things that we know - and that's why they like to have athletes as ambassadors because it is so natural so to them. And we understand the value of that, too. I don't know how to speak Swahili but I know how to let a kid know that I'm open in a soccer game. That's sort of transcending sports.

Q: Do these kids have any idea who you are?

A: No. They've never seen ice, even in a glass to cool their drink. We would describe (hockey) as two nets, five or six guys per team, and (tell them to) picture boots with blades or knives on the bottom and picture water all over the field but it's really, really hard. It was neat, though. We took a couple of plastic sticks and balls to this one school, and I handed it to a kid and they all naturally grabbed it (left handed or right handed like a hockey stick).

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